The Baby Affair
by rumyas
Summary: Gary loses the chance to stop the kidnapping of a baby from the hospital, what would he do if there was no way to find the baby ever again? COMPLETE! Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**THE BABY AFFAIR**.

The characters of Early Edition donot belong to meetc.I have no clue about hospital rules or visiting hours which may be mentioned in this, atleast not in America. Please forgive any mistakes. This is only my 2nd EE fanfic,please read and review!

**PART I:**

Gary Hobson entered his office whistling. He was just setting down his cup of coffee on a table when his friend and partner in business Marissa Clark entered the room. "You seem to be in a good mood today! Did the paper give you a day off or something?" she commented. "You could say that," replied Gary. "Except a kid who breaks his ankle running a victory lap after winning a running race, there is nothing in the paper."

"When does that happen?" asked Marissa. "Oh just about an hour later. After that I am free as a bird, for today at least." Gary replied cheerfully and sipped his coffee. Marissa sighed. It was about time that Gary got some time off. He was always helping someone or the other, always on his feet. And what did he get for his efforts, nothing, not even gratitude.

Then an idea struck her and before she had even completed her thought, she had spoken out loud." Why don't you come with me to buy a gift for my cousin Esther's new baby? You can even come with me to visit her in the hospital." Gary replied as soon as he had found his voice, "No way! Come on Marissa, you know how I feel about little babies, especially right now! Besides I don't even know Esther, I've met her only once." Marissa couldn't help it. She burst out laughing as she remembered the incident that had taken place just a few days ago. Gary had just saved a young mother from accidentally dropping her baby and killing it. In the process of saving her, he had gotten her milkshake all over himself and she insisted on helping him cleaning it. She had given the baby to Gary to hold while she fished in her bag for napkins when the boy had decided that he didn't really like his lunch and promptly threw up on Gary.

Marissa finally stopped laughing and tried once more over Gary's protests. "Come on, I do need help choosing something for the baby, a girl. And like you just said, you are free."

Two and a half hours later, Gary wondered how he had gotten himself into this. He had successfully saved the teenager with nothing more than a scrape on the knee. But right after that Marissa, who had accompanied him, had dragged him into a big store and set him to the task of finding the perfect gift for her cousin's daughter. After ages trying to decide whether to buy a soft stuffed toy or a rattle, she finally bought both. Then they went to the baby clothes section of another store and Marissa was still deciding what to buy. Just then a young woman passing by stopped and asked Marissa if she wanted to buy the small pullover that she was holding, "If not, I would like to have that for my newborn niece." Immediately Marissa said, "of course you can have it." The woman smiled broadly and within minutes they were both in deep conversation on various types of clothes for baby.

Gary wandered down the aisle, looking at all the baby paraphernalia around him. He was going to choose something to give Esther for her baby. After all, he couldn't go empty handed.

Inspecting a small, multicolored scarf, he didn't see the young woman standing in the middle of the aisle till he bumped into her. She didn't even hear his apology and seemed to be listening or waiting for something. Shrugging his shoulders, Gary skirted around her and went towards Marissa. He figured that he had given her enough time to chat. If they didn't find something and leave for the hospital soon, visiting hours would be over. As he approached her, he could hear her telling her new 'friend' the hospital where Esther was and heard the other exclaim that her sister was in the very same place. They both were exclaiming over the coincidence when Gary reminded Marissa about the time. She nodded and said quickly to the other woman, "I have to go now; maybe I'll meet you in the hospital sometime." She already had chosen something with the other woman's help. They went to the cash counter but before they could hand over their purchases, the woman Gary had bumped into earlier rushed ahead of them. She had bought a small yellow scarf and matching socks. She asked the cashier if she knew about any place where clothes or baby stuff could be bought for lower prices, because, she confided in the girl across the counter, "I can't afford too much of these things and babies seem to need so much!" The girl smiled and told her that there was a place down the road where people donated their old things for the needy; they were mostly second hand but in good condition and were available at very cheap prices or even free. Finally the woman left and Gary and Marissa got their turn and the gifts were wrapped and paid for. As they left the shop, the fleeting thought came to Gary's mind that the woman he had bumped into had been listening to Marissa's every word.

Gary and Marissa walked briskly down the street and were at the hospital entrance when a man called out to Gary that he had dropped his paper. Gary looked back and saw it lying a few feet from him and went to pick it up. He was about to put it back in his pocket when a headline towards the bottom right of the page jumped out at him. He looked at it and gasped. "8-day old baby kidnapped from hospital." The first line of the article said, "Yesterday morning, in a daring daylight attempt, a young woman posing as a nurse stole ten-day old Marie Barrett from Country Cook Hospital at 11.15 am in the morning."

Without reading further, Gary looked at his watch, 11.10. He turned to Marissa who was waiting at the entrance. He grabbed her arm and pulled her inside towards the elevators. Luckily one was just opening. As soon as the man inside stepped out, Gary pulled Marissa inside it, hurriedly pushed the close button and the one for the fourth floor. He did not hear Marissa's anxious voice questioning him about his sudden hurry. Within moments they were rushing towards Esther's room. Gary only paused to ask an orderly the way to room 409. Fear clutched Marissa's heart when she heard this. She had tried to ask Gary what the matter was in the elevator but he had not replied. She had realized that it had to be something to do with the paper.


	2. Chapter 2

**THE BABY AFFAIR **

**PART II:**

Gary burst into the room and surprised the young man sitting in a chair inside so much that he jumped out of his chair in shock. The woman in the bed, presumably Esther smiled when she saw Marissa, but before she could say a word Gary was demanding of her, "Where is your daughter? Did you give her to a nurse just now?"

"Why yes! What happened?" asked her husband. Gary's hopes plummeted. Then he remembered someone with a baby getting into the elevator just as he and Marissa had been getting out. A woman with blond hair. "Wait right here," he told Marissa and ran out to the stairs. He reached the lobby panting; he was just about to run outside when the elevator doors slid open. He swung around, expecting to see the blond woman with the baby. The elevator had obviously stopped at some floors before reaching the lobby, as there were many people inside. Gary waited for all of them to disembark, but there was no blond woman in there. He was still standing in shock there when a young woman holding a small baby swaddled in blankets stepped out last. She seemed a little familiar to Gary, but he shook off the feeling. She was stuffing something into her bag and didn't see Gary. She bumped into him and dropped her bag. He picked it up for her and neither noticed that something had fallen out of it. He asked the woman before she could leave, "Was there a blond woman with a baby who got off on any of the floors above?" The woman did not seem understand what he was saying, because she was looking up at him with a puzzled expression. He repeated his question and she replied quickly, too quickly, "No, No, I didn't see any one like that, sorry." Saying so, she hurried past Gary and went out. Gary couldn't believe it. The woman had just disappeared. He turned to wait near the stairs, in case she had decided to get off the elevator before and walk out, but as he turned, he saw a yellow scarf lying on the floor. It must be that woman's, fallen out of her bag when she bumped into me, he thought, bending to pick it up. But when he picked it up, something silky which had been wrapped up in it fell out. A blond wig! In a flash he realized that the dark- haired woman whom he had talked to was the same woman who had stolen the baby. He ran out and went to the right where he had seen her go, but she had vanished! There was no telling where she had gone. His shoulders drooped in dejection. He couldn't believe the fact that the baby had been snatched right under his nose.

Marissa waited anxiously for Gary to come back. She knew what had made him run like that into the hospital and her heart was pounding in fear for the little baby. She could hear Esther demanding an explanation from her, but refused to say anything till Gary came back. She was sure that Gary would find the baby; he had to. There was no need to get Esther even more upset. She heard the door open and jumped up from where she had been sitting. But before she could ask the question, silence gave her the answer. Esther looked from Marissa to Gary, the expressions on their face. She didn't even hear Gary complete what he was saying, she had fainted.

Esther was inconsolable. Doctors finally had to give her sedatives to calm her down and put her to sleep. Her husband, John, seemed to have aged a few years in just a few hours. He paced the hospital corridors till he grew tired. Finally he fell too into a restless sleep in the chair in his wife's room. The police had been called and they had taken statements from everyone and had called an artist to sketch a drawing of the kidnapper from Gary's description. It was almost nine p.m. but there was no more news. The kidnapper hadn't called for ransom either. Finally Gary persuaded Marissa to go home. He helped her out of the cab and up to her door and waited in silence till she had found her keys and unlocked the door for her. He was exhausted. The paper had changed once more, but only to include a description of the kidnapper. He had waited with Marissa for what seemed like an eternity but there had been no more news, neither in the paper nor from the police. He couldn't stop blaming himself. Why hadn't he checked the paper, he knew that it changed without reason, occasionally. If only he had dropped it just five minutes earlier, he might have seen the article earlier….if only…

Almost as if she had heard his thoughts Marissa turned to him and said, "It wasn't your fault Gary. Stop blaming yourself." Gary pushed away her angrily, "I _am_ to blame. I amthe only person to blame. Why didn't I check the paper like I usually do? Why did it change anyway? Must've been something I did that triggered off a chain reaction of events." Marissa replied in a soothing voice, "Go home and get some sleep Gary. Have faith in the paper. It _will_ bring some news tomorrow, I am sure of it."

It was a long time before Gary fell asleep that night. Guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders. He tossed and turned and finally fell into a fitful sleep overcome by fatigue. Just as his mind slowly sunk into the depths of sleep, an image rose from the recesses of his mind, an image of the woman he had bumped into in the store earlier that day. But before his tired mind could process that fact, he had sunk into oblivion.


	3. Chapter 3

**PART III:**

The next morning, the alarm woke Gary up from his slumber at exactly 6.30. The Cat was waiting for him outside the door, on the paper. Gary stood for a moment at the threshold of his loft, looking at the paper, "Please, just one clue, just one clue, please…..." saying this he picked up the paper and quickly flipped through it, looking for a mention of the kidnapping. He found the article, which included the artist's sketch of the kidnapper, but there was nothing more, no clues, no nothing, just that the baby was still missing and the kidnapper was still at large. With a sound of rage and frustration, he threw the paper down on the floor beside the cat and stormed back into the room. Later, as he got dressed, he had the feeling that he had forgotten something, something important. But for the life of him, he couldn't remember what.

He went down for a much needed cup of coffee to find Marissa already in the office. He began, "How is ..." "She is still sleeping; I spoke to John on the phone just some time back." Marissa answered his question before he could complete it. She said something about Esther's condition, something about her blood pressure, but Gary was hardly listening. He was trying to why someone would take such a small baby, even he with his limited knowledge knew that such a small baby would have to be handled with extreme care, without being exposed to cold etc. And there had not been any call or ransom notes either. In fact the more Gary thought about it, the more he felt like it was not a kidnapping for ransom, but someone had just wanted the baby. His instincts told him not to voice his fears to Marissa, but the fear that the baby was lost forever stubbornly refused to go away.

Marissa insisted on working that day. She said she needed to keep busy so that she wouldn't have time to dwell on what had happened or what could happen. Gary agreed with her and opened up the bar. But business that was slow that day and there were no jobs for him in the paper either, though Gary kept checking it every five or so minutes. He found himself trying to remember what he had done the previous day that could have changed the paper. Marissa insisted that it was just chance, but Gary was not convinced. "It never changes without a good reason, usually only if I change something in the sequence of events leading to that…" Marissa finally had enough. "Stop it Gary, the whole morning today all you have been doing is blame yourself, check the paper, blame yourself some more… now you just don't make any sense… changing the sequence of events indeed! Why don't you just accept that the paper changed and try to help find the baby rather than waste time doing nothing!" She walked out of the room in a huff.

Gary was a little taken aback. He knew Marissa could get a little angry sometimes, but her outburst surprised him. Then he realized that every time he spoke about his fears for the baby, her worry would have increased some more especially as the baby was her own niece. He hurried out after her to calm her down, but found her getting into her coat. "You're leaving?" he asked incredulously. "No I am not, I am just going to take a nap and thought my coat and gloves would keep me warm!" she replied sarcastically. "Come on Gary, I'm tired of listening to you mutter about if you should have doe this or done that and so on. I'm so worried already, and John said that Esther seems to be going into depression…I don't know what to do… what if we never find her…" Marissa's voice broke. Her anger faded and her eyes filled up. Her composure had crumbled; Gary took a step forward and enveloped her in a bear hug. Marissa couldn't stand it any longer, she sobbed into his shoulders. "I'm sorry for yelling at you Gary, but I just… and Esther's been through so much already…" Esther's mother had died just after she had got married, then a year later, when they were expecting their first baby, she had suffered a miscarriage and gone into depression. When she knew that they were going to have another baby, her joy had no bounds. But it seemed that her world had come crashing down once more.

John was still in the same clothes he had been in the previous day when Gary and Marissa entered the room. He looked totally devastated. Esther was leafing through a magazine without showing the slightest bit of interested in it.

When she saw Gary and Marissa, she just looked up but didn't say a word. John got up from his chair and offered it to Marissa and went to find other chairs for himself and Gary. Gary stood at the entrance of the room without knowing what to say. He had only come because Marissa had insisted and he couldn't stand to see Marissa cry again. He didn't have anything to do anyway. He looked around, spotting a pile of gifts on the floor in the corner of the room. Marissa was going to take them back to either her house or Esther's house, because Esther couldn't bear to look at them without bursting into tears.

Just then it clicked in his mind, what he had remembered the last night before falling asleep. The woman in the store where they had bought the gifts for the baby. He hadn't seen her face very clearly, but now he realized that the woman from the elevator who was the kidnapper was the same woman from the store. That was why the woman in the elevator had seemed familiar. She had definitely overheard Marissa's conversation with the other woman she had met that day.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you soo much for the reviews! hope you aren't disappointed by this chapter. Only 1 or 2 left i think.**   
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**PART IV:**

Agatha shuffled slowly into the living room with a warm bottle of milk in her hands. She had been surprised when her grand daughter Chrissy had appeared at her door the previous evening. That too with a baby in her hands. The poor mite had looked undernourished and was nowhere near the size or weight of a three- week old baby. Agatha reached the wailing baby on the couch and tenderly picked it up and gave it the bottle. The baby immediately became silent, hungrily drinking the milk. Thankfully Chrissy was asleep in the bedroom; it seemed to Agatha that the baby cried more when its mother was around. Maybe they should have kept Chrissy for some more time in that hospital, maybe she wasn't cured yet. In Agatha's opinion Chrissy should not have had another child so soon. But could anyone blame her for wanting one. It was not her fault that her first baby had died; she just hadn't known how to take care of it. Sh hadn't known that she had to feed it, just as she hadn't known how to stop it from crying. She had simply wrapped the baby up in a cloth and put it inside a drawer to muffle the noise, only it baby had died of suffocation. That was when those doctors had taken away Chrissy. But her problem hadn't started then, they had begun when she had received a head injury in the car crash in which her parents had died. She had not been the same since.

Agatha pulled the yellow jacket more tightly around the baby to keep it warm. It was cold and the heating system in Agatha's run down home was not good. Chrissy said that their entire luggage had been lost and she was going to buy some clothes for herself as well as the baby that evening, if Agatha would give her some money. Agatha was too afraid to do or say anything against Chrissy. She could fly into a terrible rage and would have no trouble hitting her own grandmother if she had to. The baby started crying again and the noise snapped Agatha out of her reverie. She slowly rocked the baby to sleep after pulling a sheet to cover herself and the baby to keep them warm.

Gary got out of the cab and handed the driver a few notes, not bothering to wait for change, he ran into the shop he had visited the previous day. The same girl was at the counter. He ran to her and asked her, "Do you remember a young woman, dark brown hair who came in here yesterday, about early afternoon or evening?" The girl shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Sir we get so many customers here… and why do you want to know?" Gary explained hurriedly. "…so that woman may be the kidnapper, you must have seen the news on television!"

The girl quickly directed him to the place she had told the woman about the previous day. It was just a few minutes away from the store.

Gary quickly called John Barrett from the nearest pay phone and asked him to call the police as soon as possible. He then went to the second-hand store himself and was soon met by a police detective who carried with him the sketch of woman they had made from Gary's description. The detective questioned all the people in the store and showed them the sketch but no one had seen anyone even remotely resembling her. The detective then asked Gary if he had been sure that it was the same woman from the store. Gary replied in the affirmative. "It was definitely her! I don't know why I didn't realize before. The yellow scarf that she dropped was the clue. It was the same thing that she bought from the store yesterday, show it to the sales clerk, she will definitely recognise it!" From that moment, there was at least one police man keeping a watch on the place, in plain clothes. But that whole day, the kidnapper did not appear. Gary was feeling dejected once more, there had been no change in the paper, the woman had not been seen, no ransom note had appeared, they were at a dead end.

Agatha had tried asking her grand daughter politely to go and buy some clothes for the baby as well as for herself. She had finally resorted to shouting, but Chrissy's voice was much louder than hers. Chrissy was still in the same clothes she had been in when she had arrived the previous day. It was growing colder and Agatha didn't have many warm blankets. The heater had finally conked out and her helpful neighbour had promised to fix it the next day, but they had to make do till then. It was close to nine but she finally convinced Chrissy to go and get some clothes form the shop she had mentioned the previous day. She had finally agreed and had just left, it wasn't too far, just a few minutes walk.


	5. Chapter 5

**THE BABY AFFAIR**

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**PART V:  
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Gary dropped Marissa home and went back to the store where he was going to keep the waiting policeman company. She had tried to persuade him to go home and get some sleep, but Gary was determined to stay till the shop closed. The policeman hadn't minded, in fact almost seemed to welcome the company. Gary was taking over his duties for a minute, while the policeman got a cup of coffee from a nearby shop, when he caught a glimpse of a woman hurrying out of the shop, a dark-haired woman. She carried two to three bags of clothes and was walking very fast. Gary didn't have time to wait for the policeman to come back. He ran after the woman, but she had gotten a lead start and was quite a bit ahead of him. She was getting into a car now, there were others inside it too. Gary ran faster and reached the car just as she got in and closed the door. He pulled it open once more and started into the surprised face of the dark-haired woman, but it was not the one he was looking for. He apologised profusely saying he had mistaken her for someone else and made his way back to the store dejectedly. The policeman stood there with an enquiring look, ready to call for help if necessary. "It wasn't her." said Gary shortly. Just then a girl came running out calling for help. "The woman you were looking for, she was just here! I didn't realise till she left, she left from the back." The girl gestured towards the back door, "She said it was closer to her place." Gary didn't wait to hear anything more, he took off at a run and went around the back of the shop. There were only a few people walking there, hidden by shadows, but even at a distance he could make out that none of them could be a woman. He quickly asked the nearest ones if they had seen a young woman, but nobody seemed to have. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. The policeman had called his headquarters and now came running. Gary told him that the woman had just disappeared and the only way she could do that so fast was if she had gone into one of these houses. Both men were standing undecided when a loud scream rang through the quiet street. They both looked at each other in shock and ran to the house where the noise had come from. When they got closer they could hear some shouting, it seemed like two women shouting at each other. Gary suddenly realised that one of the voices was of the woman from the store, the kidnapper! His hands clenched in fear and apprehension as the baby's cries drowned out the women's voices. He pushed open the door and barged in, but the scene that confronted him stopped him in his tracks.

Agatha was finally convinced. Her Chrissy was not completely cured. All she did was to shout at the child. She kept insisting that the baby was hers, that she loved her, that she had loved all her babies; yet she often looked like she could strangle the small neck to keep it quiet. Till she had come the baby had been quiet, but the moment it saw her, it had started crying again. All Agatha had done was to take the baby in her arms to quieten her, but that had enraged Chrissy. She had slapped her own grandmother, pushed her to the ground and had taken the baby in her arms, and that was how Gary found them. The old woman was against the wall, trembling in fear, the young woman holding the baby in one hand and reaching for something with the other. Neither of them noticed Gary. He stood in shock as the woman took a sock in her hand and stuffed it into the baby's mouth. "There! That should keep you quiet. I just can't stand your crying anymore!" In the sudden quiet that followed, she heard footsteps running towards her.

Gary was galvanised into action. He tried to take the baby from the woman but she wouldn't let him. The baby's face seemed to be changing colours, choking. The woman held the baby in one hand and fought off Gary with the other, scratching his face with her nails. The policeman ran behind her and tried to stop her. When she realised she was outnumbered, Chrissy lifted the baby high up into the air and screamed, "Here, you want her so much? You can have her!"

Gary watched as if in slow motion the baby lifted up in the air and then thrown through the air. The old woman screamed and the policeman shouted, but he couldn't seem to be able to do anything. The kidnapper fell to the ground as the policeman finally overpowered her. In a split second, Gary's reflexes kicked in and he lunged through the air, catching the baby just in time before he fell to the floor himself. But the baby was against his chest, unhurt by the fall, cushioned by his body as he fell on his side. Still on the ground, he held the baby with one hand and with the other pulled out the sock from its mouth. The blessed wail of a baby resounded through the room and he heaved a sigh of relief.

Author's Note:This is the last chapter. I really didnt know how to end this story so I've left it at this. Please review!


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